Category Archives: Uncategorized

INTERVIEW: M.A. SUMANTHIRAN ……‘They kept denying that there was a crisis’

R.K. RADHAKRISHNANIN COLOMBO  Print edition : April 22, 202

M.A. Sumanthiran: “… the triggering of this crisis seems to be the heavy tax cuts that were introduced soon after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became President…. As much as 33 per cent of the people fell outside the tax net as a result…. Once it starts sliding, you can’t pull it back.” Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP

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Michael Roberts

This work is one that never came into my orbit and it is chance today that brought it to my attention …. and in recent correspondence Niggy aka Nirgunan Tiruchelvam in Singapore praised the work. So, let me present its “frontal view” and encourage readers to comment on its data and approaches.

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Mr C[1]

I found the essay by Asoka Bandarage[2]  as okay, but it suffers from a few argumentative flaws I will discuss in this article.  The writer Bandarage has made many claims. Some of these I agree with. Her main argument comes towards the end of the article which may be summarized as follows: Sri Lanka must avoid being exploited by foreign powers or caught up in geopolitical adventures played out between India, China and the US which it can achieve by creating food and energy security for itself by exploiting natural resources, and he mentions an area of Sri Lanka containing oil and gas resources. We know Sri Lanka is a fertile land and can easily sustain rice and food crops, if managed properly.  While I agree Sri Lanka should strive for its own food and energy security, I am not sure this will be achievable in the case of energy security without significant foreign investment, which means the geopolitical problems he refers to are unlikely to go away.

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Captain Elmo Jayawardena

Let me start by writing what I perceive somewhat as the truth. The last thing anyone knows in Sri Lanka is the truth. It has always been in masquerade as long as I can remember. I have to trigger this parody at the Rogues’ Gallery in Diyawanna Oya.

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Thuppahi’s ‘Gift’ to Assiduous Students Today

Ponnambalam Arunachalam

EW Perera

CWW Kannangara

1. Ariyaratne, R. A. 1977. “Communal Conflict and the Formation of the Ceylon National Congress”. The Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies, 1977 Vol. VII No. 1 , pp. 57-82. http://dlib.pdn.ac.lk/handle/1/3639 (PDF available) …….

An  extensive 26-page paper providing a detailed overview on Ceylon National Association, CNC, and places it within the context of territorial and communal division. Also talks about the CAN and CNC as “open” reform societies, and outlines how they consisted of a cross-section of westernized elites.

• Excerpt: A rift with the Government having thus already been created, and without a European go-between the reform leaders convened the first session of the Ceylon National Congress on 11 December 1919. Its principal architect, Arunachalam, was elected the first President. Recalling his uphill task, he wrote in 1923 “Only those who have been in the inner councils of the reform movement can know how difficult it was to bring the various communities together on a common platform, what toil and tact were needed to educate the people in their rights and duties to remove ancient prejudices and jealousies, to harmonies differences and dissensions and create the indispensable basis of mutual trust and co-operation”.

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Andrew Fidel Fernando, whose chosen title reads “A chance to hit refresh in Sri Lanka”

Could the pluralistic ethos of the uprising bring the country back from Sinhalese majoritarianism?

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John Mearsheimer …. “Why is Ukraine the West’s Fault? Featuring John Mearsheimer” … speaking in 2015

UnCommon Core: The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine Crisis ………………………………… John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in Political Science and Co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, assesses the causes of the present Ukraine crisis, the best way to end it, and its consequences for all of the main actors. A key assumption is that in order to come up with the optimum plan for ending the crisis, it is essential to know what caused the crisis. Regarding the all-important question of causes, the key issue is whether Russia or the West bears primary responsibility.

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